The premiere of Asolo Rep’s latest play was to die for, loaded with laughter and applause. The opening-night audience applauded the set, the costumes and the special effects, as well as the actors. Watching Ken Ludwig’s farcical, witty mystery was like spending an evening savoring bonbons and brie: decadent, deadly and delicious.

The production’s unabashed celebration of drollery and farce delights the palate with sheer over-the-top indulgence. For starters, its richly detailed set, which Judy Gailen designed, echoes William Gillette’s magnificent, idiosyncratic medieval castle in Connecticut. The story is based on the real-life character of Gillette, who made a fortune over 35 years as lead actor and playwright of “Sherlock Holmes — A Drama in Four Acts,” in the early 20th century.

The costumes, by Eduardo Sicangco, are emblematic of the glamour of the period. Each one is its own piece of perfection, from Holmesian wool houndstooth to a red velvet full-length, divinely draped wrap, whipped off to reveal daring pale palazzo pants — just kill me now. Both the lighting, by Mary Louise Geiger, and the sound design, by Fabian Obispo, are highly worthy of note.

Greg Leaming’s direction gives the actors all they need to flaunt their stuff to full effect. The stunning cast plays the theatrical characters to the hilt, reveling in their attention-seeking egos, spouting Shakespeare at every turn, just like a party in the Hollywood Hills.

Brian Torfeh, who is delightfully magnetic as Gillette, makes me think of an elegant Tom Hanks — and who doesn’t want more Tom Hanks? Gail Rastorfer literally throws her beautiful body into the dark soul of Daria Chase, a theater critic everyone loves to hate. Peggy Roeder plays Gillette’s mother, Martha, with a sweetly winning blend of grace and befuddlement. Carolyn Michel is charmingly quirky as a Connecticut Detective, dressed and accented as if she’d just stepped in from a walk on the moors. Eric Hissom, as Gillette’s close friend Felix, and his wife, Madge, played by Elizabeth King-Hall, are lively additions to the ensemble, and Brittany Proia, as Aggie Wheeler, and Joseph McGranaghan, as Simon Bright, play their parts most convincingly.

Game's Afoot, The

Florida State University Center for the Performing Artz - Mertz Theater

Theater Address:

5555 North Tamiami Trail

Phone:

941-351-8000

Website:

asolorep.org

Running Time:

2 hrs, 15 min

Genre:

Farce

Author:

Ken Ludwig

Director:

Greg Leaming

Review:

With its hero loosely based on actual playwright William Gillette, best known for his lucrative career portraying his creation of Sherlock Holmes, The Game’s Afoottakes place in a stage version of Gillette’s real American castle. With decor of medieval armor and weapons as well as numerous doors and a library-anchored round wall that swings into a fully appointed bar, the setting is perfect for director Greg Leaming’s specialty: farce.

Almost recuperated from being shot during a performance, Gillette, in full histrionic Sherlock mode, asks cast members to join him and his eccentric, now-retired actress mother over the Christmas holidays. They’re meant to help ferret out the theater shooter.

Gail Rastofer’s gaudy, acid Darla Chase comes in as a drama critic everyone hates but stays (on and on, between her body being spirited away and awkwardly reappearing) as a corpse. Knifed! Whodunit? Gillette will apply Holmes-with-Conan Doyle methods to expose his guests’ secrets, while most of them play supporting roles in solving what becomes a very circumvoluted mystery.

Bryan Torfeh pulls off Gillette’s histrionics in a surprisingly sophisticated manner. As his mother, Peggy Roeder epitomizes hatred for and desire to get even with the evil critic Darla Chase, while being more subtle about her related actions at home than she must have been in her stage career.

Eric Hissom, in a world premiere, created the role of Gillette’s sidekick and the stage character of Holmes’ antagonist, Professor Moriarty. Hissom has now thoroughly absorbed his host’s good friend Felix Geisel with contradictory feelings about his wealth.

No doubt of Felix’s dislike of Darla, though, and of the effect of their very brief offstage relationship on his present one with his actress wife (Elizabeth King-Hall, beautiful but proving Madge Geisel to be insecure).

Brittany Proia and Joseph McGranaghan acquit themselves credibly as Aggie Wheeler and Simon Bright, though they’re seemingly mismatched new marrieds. They were brought strangely together on the occasion of her husband’s accidental death.

Aggie’s not above flirting with their host, exactly the opposite of Simon’s attitude toward Darla. He has a habit of going off or being onstage alone.

Outside help with solving the murder comes from comical, unshapely Inspector Goring, who latches supportively onto Gillette’s methods but like a parody of Miss Marple. It’s the kind of role Carolyn Michael’s been slipping into consistently with the Rep. Though she’s good at it, as my escort opined, all that’s changed here is her costume.

Speaking of costumes, Eduardo Sicangco’s, especially for the women, vie with the castle Christmas tree in seasonal colors, luminosity, and ostentatious ornamentation. Gillette’s is the nearest to these among the menswear. All of the technical staff deserve the frequent audience oohs and ahs.

To add to the pleasure of seeing comedy well done, playwright Ken Ludwig sprinkles his script (like his title) with Shakespearian quotations and allusions. He also references Arthur Conan Doyle’s spiritualism-related beliefs (including a Noel Coward-tinged seance) and Sherlock Holmes’ inductive methods. Fun added to so much funny!

The Game’s Afoot, a murder mystery farce, is the latest installment in the Asolo Repertory’s “American Character” series. The Depression-era play within a play involves the Broadway cast of Sherlock Holmes, including the most successful American actor at the time, William Gillette.

The Games Afoot brings Sherlock Holmes to the stage.

Gillette is shot on stage during the opening scene and survives. He then sets about trying to solve his own attempted assassination using the techniques of his alter ego, Holmes. He invites the cast and an infamous theatre critic to his palatial mansion in Connecticut to simultaneously celebrate Christmas Eve and try to solve a crime. The play is reminiscent of the classic board game Clue, complete with an elaborate setting, mystery-solving gadgets galore and suspicious characters, each of whom has a complex backstory.

Kudos to the set designers for creating Gillette’s opulent compound with larger-than-life portraits of Holmes and Watson, secret rooms and a two-story Christmas tree. And bravo to the fabulous costume designers for Gillette’s gorgeous smoking jacket, actress Madge Geisel’s red and green velvet jeweled coat and critic Daria Chase’s sparkly dress, which she “just threw on” to come to the Gillette mansion.

Stunning costumes in the classic whodunit “The Game’s Afoot.”

The Game’s Afoot cast was top-notch as usual. Two of the stand-out performances of the evening were the sharp-tongued Chase, played by Gail Rastorfer, who was reminiscent of Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada; and Gillette’s dotty mother, Martha, a loyal matriarch who holds the motley crew together.

The play, although not my favorite this season, was light-hearted and spirited, certain to be a crowd-pleaser. Because it focused on the camaraderie of a repertory cast, the play served as a great reminder of just how talented and versatile our local repertory company is. Most of the cast has already played a variety of roles this season, including ingénue Aggie, played by Brittany Proia; her husband Simon, played by Joseph McGranaghan; and her mother, played by PeggyRoeder, who all perform together in this year’s production of You Can’t Take It With You. It was also lovely to see so many other Asolo luminaries, including Clybourne Park star Tyla Abercrumbie and Associate Artists Doug Jones and David Breitbarth present in the audience on opening night to support their fellow cast members.

We are so fortunate to have a fantastic repertory company here in our local community, and The Game’s Afoot demonstrates that actors working “in rep” become as close as family when they work together on stage regularly. You can feel the familiarity among the cast as you begin to see the Asolo shows on a regular basis, and that just adds to the experience.

If you love farce and murder mysteries, be sure to check out The Game’s Afoot at asolorep.org. Up next, Venus in Fur premieres on Friday, April 5. Stay tuned to This Week in Sarasota for my review.

Bonnie Greenball Silvestri

Bonnie Silvestri is Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Civic Engagement and an instructor teaching law classes in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. Prior to moving to Sarasota, she lived in New York City from 1996 to 2006. She received her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in English with a minor in Art History from Vanderbilt University and her Juris Doctor from The Michael E. Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Most importantly, she is mom to the beautiful Daphne and wife of Michael Silvestri.

Asolo Rep is presenting master farceur Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot in a hilarious production. The play is not a great script, but a frame to hang some great comic acting upon. Like so many of Mr. Ludwig's past successes (Lend Me a Tenor,Moon Over Buffalo) the setting is theatrical, set in real life actor William Gillette's Connecticut mansion. It is a cross between a tight who-dun-it and a farce, and does not represent the best of either genre. There is much clever dialogue including witty Shakespearean references.

The main reason to present The Game's Afoot is Asolo's ability to field great casts for this kind of plays. Bryan Torfeh makes a welcome return, after too long away, in the role of William Gillette. Mr. Torfeh has been seen in the past to great acclaim in such repertoire as The Play's the Thing and Amadeus. His prowess at physical comedy is amazing. A scene in which he and Gail Rastorfer dance around the playing area so that he remains completely unaware that she literally has a knife stuck in her back is a hilarious. As Daria Chase, gossip columnist and disliked by everyone else, Ms. Rastorfer gives a performance in the first act that is blazingly over the top. Spoiler alert: In the second act, as a dead body she is even better. Eric Hissom and Elizabeth King-Hall as Felix and Madge Geisel are both superbly funny. I could expect it from Mr. Hissom having seen him play comedy before, Ms. King-Hall's ability to play comedy is a delightful surprise after her fine dramatic performance in The Heidi Chronicles. Brittany Proia and Joseph McGranaghan as Aggie Wheeler and Simon Bright (actually Mr. and Mrs. Simon Bright, now) continue their winning ways after fine performances in You Can't Take it With You and other shows earlier in the season. Both are third year students at Asolo Acting Conservatory and show great promise for the future. Peggy Roeder, also featured in You Can't Take it With You, splits the daffy quota in half as Gillette's mother, sharing with Carolyn Michel who contributes yet another in her long list of delightfully daft damsels as Inspector Goring. I wish I could bottle her so that I need never suffer withdrawal from her comedic charms. One minor quibble: at the performance I attended, the prologue, which shows Gillette's troupe in a performance of Sherlock Holmes, and the first few minutes of the actual play were a little unfocused as the actors found their rhythms.

Actors can not be at their best without assistance from a great director; here it is Greg Leaming, head of Asolo Acting Conservatory. He has a masterful hand with comedy. This production also brings out the very best from the Asolo's great technical team. The set design by Judy Gailen is striking in its detail and richness, evoking striking luxuriousness. Costume Design by Eduardo Sicangco is amazing. A traveling ensemble for Daria's arrival is stunning in its period authenticity, including fur trimmed jacket. Later, the jacket is removed to reveal a bolero bodice underneath. Equally stunning costumes for William Gillette, Mr. and Mrs. Geisel and Martha Gillette make for a visually stunning evening. All of the other technical elements work in harmony to enrich the production.

As a play The Game's Afoot may or may not be worthy of inclusion in a season with the lofty ambition to examine "the American Character, Our Lives On Stage" but it makes for a fun evening at Asolo Rep.

References (88)

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